Sept 13 to Sept 14 – CA-Madrid (via Zurich), – Kelly

The good news about our flight was that we didn’t have to wear masks. The bad news was that we were (a) in coach, and (b) connecting in Zurich which added an extra four hours of “coach discomfort” to our trip. The highlight of the flight happened when we were boarding in Los Angeles. We were being herded toward the hinterlands of coach, and passing through business class with its spacious, leather seats, footrests, elbow room, and complimentary bottles of Evian, when we overheard a fellow coach traveler behind us say “They don’t even show us first class because they know we’d kill ourselves.” Made my day!

Our Madrid hotel view looked out on several ornate, gorgeous buildings that were built before the United States was even a country. We spent the next day and a half seeing one grand and amazing castle, cathedral, statue, and plaza after another. Welcome to Europe!

What’s different? Breakfast fare has more charcuterie-type offerings, coffee comes in tiny cups (this could be a problem!), the ambulance and police sirens are different, way fewer folks wearing leisurewear and tennis shoes, a glass of wine is a smaller pour than at home – but it is also cheaper than a bottle of water (that’s a win!), they don’t have Uber/Lyft – so had to figure out what their version was and get the app.